weaving

Chapter 896
In the 14th year of Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, on September [-]th, on Pingchuan at the foot of Rufeng Mountain to the north of Songshan Fort, tens of thousands of infantry and horsemen of the Ming Dynasty were waiting in line. It's like an ocean of flames.

A high platform was erected in front of the army formation, which was two feet high, nearly ten feet long, and five feet wide. There were a group of golden silk chairs on the stage, and there were more than ten people.

Dozens of large flags stood behind the high platform, waving in the wind, and hunting. Among them, the commander-in-chief flag of Hong Chengchou, governor of Jiliao, was the tallest, while the banners of Zhang Ruoqi, governor of the army, and Qiu Minyang, governor of Liaodong, were slightly smaller. shorter.

In front of the army formation outside the high platform, there are also large flags flying, which echo the dozens of large flags behind the high platform. The standard battalion soldiers lined up here.

Among them, Zhang Ruoqi's standard battalion is the most unusual. When he left Beijing to take up his post in Liao, he once called [-] knights from the Beijing battalion as his own soldiers.

However, after arriving in Liaodong, he realized that these three hundred soldiers were useless at all. However, he didn't need to go out to fight, so he didn't form his own standard battalion.

But when he arrived at Songshan, Zhang Ruoqi invited him to go to Xiaoling River Estuary to supervise the transportation of grain and grass. Hong Chengchou allocated him 500 troops from his own battalion, and [-] soldiers from the Songxing Fortresses were assigned to his command.

Since then, Zhang Ruoqi has had soldiers and horses that belong directly to him. Since then, because of the Tazi Prince Su's surprise attack on Hekou, Zhang Ruoqi also has a premonition that the 300 troops he put together improvised will not be able to meet the Tazi soldiers. Afraid of embarrassing a battle.

Therefore, he successively borrowed 300 soldiers and horses from Wang Pu, the general of Datong, and Zhang Cheng, the general of Xuanfu, to make up the current [-] soldiers.

Just because it was a standard battalion formed by drawing soldiers and horses from each battalion, the armor and clothing of each sergeant was also somewhat different. Now it is lined up with other battalions, but it has become the most conspicuous battalion.

Suddenly, a trumpet of "Boom" sounded!
Then, on the left side of the high commander's platform, a group of soldiers with bright armor came out holding their swords and guns. They stopped at the steps of the commander's platform and lined up neatly on both sides.

The governor of Jiliao, Hong Chengchou, first appeared in the eyes of the generals, followed by Zhang Ruoqi, the commander in chief, and Qiu Minyang, the governor, followed by Zhang Dou, the former soldier of Ning, Yao Gong, the deputy envoy of the inspectorate, Zhu Tingxie, the Liangdao, and several others. civil servant.

And the military general who appeared on the stage following the civil servants turned out to be Zhang Cheng, the chief military officer of Xuanfu Town!
Although Zhang Cheng had already been ranked first among military generals in previous military meetings, it was the first time that he made a public appearance in front of the generals of the army like today, and he was at the forefront of all the generals.

Among the soldiers lined up in front of the handsome stage, many of them had never seen Zhang Cheng before. At this moment, they saw that he was wearing a bright armor, which was still at the beginning of his military exploits. The suit bestowed by the current emperor, even the sword hanging from his waist It is also a royal gift.

In fact, the armor and sword bestowed by the emperor are naturally selected from the best. Both the workmanship and style are excellent, but the only shortcoming is also obvious, that is, it is not very practical.

Everything in the world is roughly like this, what looks good may not be useful, but what is useful must not be too good-looking!

What's more, who dares to wear the things bestowed by the emperor all the time, especially when going out in battle, if they are slightly damaged, how can they be worthy of the emperor's generosity.

Therefore, Zhang Cheng seldom wears this set of armor and sword on weekdays, and only wears it on his body when attending grand ceremonies and meeting the emperor.

And today, it is a grand ceremony—to report the victory to Governor Ji Liao!

As the commanders-in-chief climbed onto the high platform one after another, the sound of war drums came, and after a while, they suddenly heard two trumpets of "Boom... Boom...", all the soldiers of the three armies were shocked.

On the right side of the platform, a group of cavalry in bright red armor appeared. 200 of them were divided into two columns, and they rode forward, followed by ten carts.

On both sides of each cart, there were ten Ming soldiers in red clothes escorting them, slowly walking towards the commander's platform.

On the first cart, a big wooden stake was erected, and a Tatar general was supported on it. He was wearing gold-plated armor. It can be seen that among the Tartars, he must be a prince and Baylor-level figure.

And the two large carts behind him also helped the Tartar generals in the same way. They also wore gilt armor, but it was not as luxurious as the previous man.

But the seven carts behind did not have wooden stakes, and they did not support Tartar soldiers, but a cart full of Tartar heads. They all had hideous faces, and they had obviously been nitrated with sulfur and salt. made.

The soldiers of the armies waiting in formation saw the first three carts for the first time, because they didn't know who was helping them, although they were surprised by the gilt armor they were wearing, they were not shocked.

But now seeing the heads of the carts pulled out, everyone was very excited. They didn't need to be reminded, and they all shouted loudly: "...Mighty...Da Ming's mighty...Mighty..."

Ten large chariots marched to the commander's platform and lined up side by side, and the shouts of the soldiers gradually weakened. At this time, the sound of war drums came again, and after a while, it was "Tom...Tom...Tom... ..." Three trumpets sounded.

Then I saw a flag officer of the Chinese army, strode to the edge of the commander's platform and stopped, held up the governor's badge and shouted: "Prince Duduo, the false prince of Yu, Zhenghuang Banner Gushan Ezhen'ashan, Xiangbaiqi Banyala The dead body of Zhang Zhang Jing'e Shuo is put on the commander's platform, and Governor Hong, Qiu Futai, Director Zhang's army and other officials are asked to identify it."

As soon as he finished speaking, the infantry in front of the commanding platform set up the big wooden stake from the cart in groups of ten, and walked slowly to the right side of the commanding platform. Very strenuous, walking carefully and slowly.

At this moment, the officers and soldiers in the formation also faintly heard that this was the corpse of the Tartar prince, and all of them were shocked. Although there were some rumors in the army before, they were just jokes.

No one dared to believe that Zhang Cheng's Xuanfu army actually beheaded the prince of Tartars. Looking at the tens of thousands of Tartars in Liaodong, how many people can be named princes by him?

And which prince isn't hiding deep in the Tartar army?
With his tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in Xuanfu Town, no matter how brave they are, they can still fight an equal number of Tartars.

Even so, these generals who lived in Liaodong for a long time felt that they had a high opinion of the soldiers of the Xuanfu, and they couldn't believe it anyway, and they refused to believe that these people from the Xuanfu could really kill the Prince of Tartar.

However, what I saw with my own eyes now, not to mention the gold-plated armor, is the heads of the seven chariots behind the Tartars, which is enough to shock them. They have fought against the Tartars in Liaodong for more than ten years. The gains are all added together, and I am afraid that there is no such thing as today.

Some of them are well-informed, even whispering all kinds of gossip.

"I've heard from my master general that General Zhang of the Xuan Mansion chopped off three or four thousand heads of the Tartars this time."

"Dear me, have you cut so much? How much money does this have to be a bounty!"

"You are a ball, full of rewards for your brains. If you ask me to say that you have so many tartar heads, I am afraid that you will be promoted to three levels in a row, and you will be short of money to spend when you become a general?"

In the army formation, there was a lot of chatter, almost all the soldiers were envious of the military achievements of the Xuanfu army, and of course some people's eyes were bloodshot, and their envy turned into naked jealousy.

However, their jealousy is so harmless to the Xuanfu army!
Among the army formations, the most calm ones are the generals of the Xuanfu Army. They lined up on the left side of Zhang Ruoqi's supervising army battalion, and stood at a distance from the soldiers of Ningyuan Town who lined up on the right side of Qiu Minyang Fubiao camp.

They all hold their heads high and their chests high, looking extremely proud. Today they can be regarded as elated among the troops who aided the king of Liao. What about the Liaodong Army, which was once known as the most capable army in the Ming Dynasty?
Now, they are not looking at themselves helplessly, trying to show off, but they can only look up.

Even the soldiers of Datong and Shanxi who formed formation next to the Xuanfu army looked proud. After all, the soldiers of the two towns also participated in this battle of returning to Xingta.

And the soldiers in the front battalion of the Shenji Battalion also felt that their faces were very radiant. This is naturally because they have been very close to the Xuanfu army, and this time when they returned to aid Xingta, Fu Yingchong, the deputy general of the Shenji Battalion, lent Zhang Cheng a lot What about a small, portable artillery.

To be able to achieve such a great victory and achieve so many gains is naturally due to the artillery of their Shenji Battalion!

Just as all the soldiers in the army had different expressions and whispered to each other, the banner officer on the side of the commander's platform shouted loudly again: "It has been verified that he is a slave, a false king, Duoduo, and he is the real king of Huangqi Gushan. Ashan, there is no doubt about the dead body of Baya Latiao Zhangjing Eshuo inlaid with white flags."

"Wan Sheng... Wan Sheng... Wan Sheng..."

"...Wan Sheng...Da Ming Wan Sheng...Da Ming Wan Sheng..."

As Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, expected, such a testament to Xuanfu town's military achievements greatly boosted the morale of the whole army.

Next, the banner officer yelled and asked all the officials to step down from the platform to inspect the heads of the Tartars.

All the officials got off the platform one by one, came to the seven carts, grabbed the heads of the Tartars one after another, and kept examining them. Nature is extremely familiar.

You can tell if it is the real head of a barbarian by weighing it with your hands, and there is no need for cumbersome procedures to check. What's more, with Zhang Cheng's current status, and it is the most sensitive period of the Liao War, he dare not pretend to be a fake.

Soon, the victory ceremony was completed, and the officers and soldiers of the various towns also drove back to their respective garrisons, but the commanders of the towns were left behind.

They followed the Governor Hong Chengchou all the way back to the Governor's Xingyuan, and they discussed again in the big tent of the Chinese Army, which was nothing more than how to distribute the military leaders.

In fact, for the general distribution of military merits, Governor Hong Chengchou, Governor Qiu Minyang, Chief Army Zhang Ruoqi, and Xuanfu Chief Soldier Zhang Cheng had reached a consensus earlier.

Although Zhang Cheng beheaded thousands of Tatars in the next battle at Changling Mountain, but when it came time to distribute the heads, he had to distribute a large part to the rest of the generals.

Zhang Cheng didn't seem to care too much about this, but Wang Pu, Li Fuming, Chen Jiugao and others seemed to have a lot of opinions.

Back to aid Xingta, they all have subordinates to participate in it, the heads of thousands of Tatars here naturally have some of them, and now they want to distribute it to others, so naturally they don't want to.

But after all, their mouths are not as big as those of Hong Chengchou, Qiu Minyang, Zhang Ruoqi, and others. This dumb man must suffer. The reason why they struggled is nothing more than wanting to get more heads.

After several debates, finally a consensus was reached. Although during the debate, the generals were red-faced and refused to give in to each other, but once a consensus was reached, they immediately reconciled as before, as if the debate just never happened at all. over average.

This is the officialdom of Daming. If one person does meritorious service, chickens and dogs will ascend to heaven, and even other people's chickens and dogs can also ascend to heaven.

Just imagine, under such a system, is there any general who will truly fight on the battlefield?

If you fight back and forth desperately, but end up taking advantage of irrelevant people, if it's you, will you feel comfortable?
Fortunately, no one came to fight for the merits of Duoduo, Prince Yu of the Qing Dynasty, Zhenghuangqi Gushan Ezhen'ashan, and Xiangbaiqi Baya Latuzhang Jing'eshuo. Otherwise, Zhang Cheng would have turned his face on the spot.

As for the heads of those Tartar thieves, he didn't care. In the end, he only left [-] heads to keep a share of military merit for his soldiers, and gave up the rest.

Although, Zhang Cheng gave up more than 3000 Tartar heads to everyone, plus the heads of Tartars who had been beheaded at Shimen Mountain, Huangtuling, Xiaoling River Estuary, etc., the total number exceeded [-]. many.

But even with such a large number of Tartar leaders, Governor Hong Chengchou, Governor Qiu Minyang, General Commander Zhang Ruoqi, Zhang Dou of the Military Constitution, Yao Gong of the Procuratorate, Wang Zhizhen of the Supervising Dao, Yuan Guodong of the General Judge, Zhu Tingxie of the Liang Dao, etc. Wu Sangui, Cao Bianjiao, Wang Tingchen and several other generals received one point.

Each of them only has a few hundred heads. The first achievement since the Liao incident is naturally none other than Zhang Cheng, and no one can shake it in the slightest!

But even so, everyone was happy. You must know that although compared with Zhang Cheng, they got too few heads, even if they got dozens of heads, it was a great achievement in Daming at this moment.

If it can exceed a hundred, it is almost a great contribution. All the officials and generals are now divided into hundreds of Tartar heads. All of them are great achievements, so how can they not be so happy that they can't get carried away?
After finishing the division of military merits, it is natural to have a big celebration.

Even though Governor Hong Chengchou considered military importance, he still couldn't suppress the excitement of the officials and generals, and finally set up a banquet in Governor Xingyuan's large tent of the Chinese army.

For the first time, wine was served, and all the officials had a feast, and everyone was full of wine, so happy.

However, Wu Sangui, the commander-in-chief of Ningyuan, seemed to have something on his mind. Although he also had a feast with everyone, there was always a trace of strangeness in the way he looked at Zhang Cheng.

Furthermore, the same is true for Ma Ke, the general soldier of Shanhaiguan who has redeemed himself, and seems to have ulterior motives!
(End of this chapter)